BOX SCORE Louisville, K.Y. - Sophomore Keith Braxton (Glassboro, N.J./The Lawrenceville School) recorded 25 points and 11 rebounds and the Saint Francis men's basketball team (2-3) made a season-high 10 three-pointers to put a scare into the No. 19 Louisville Cardinals in an 84-72 defeat.

Turning Point

The Red Flash and Cardinals were deadlocked at 26-26 with 7:08 to play in the first half after a three-pointer from senior Malik Harmon (Queens, N.Y./Christ the King) and a transition layup from Braxton. The Cardinals outscored the Red Flash 14-6 over the final 4:02 of the half for a 46-35 lead, then used a 17-3 run early in the second half to grab its biggest lead, 66-44, with 12:38 to play. That's when Braxton began to take over, scoring 16 of SFU's next 19 points to chip away at the deficit. Junior Jamaal King (Salisbury, Md./Bishop O'Connell (Va.)) buried a corner three with 5:36 remaining to make the score 74-66. The Red Flash trailed 76-68 with 3:13 remaining before the Cardinals closed out the game with an 8-0 run. 

Inside the Box Score

• Saint Francis made 25-55 shots from the field (45.5%) while Louisville connected on 31 of its 64 shots (48.4%).
• The Red Flash entered the game shooting 28.4 % from three but hit 10 of its 21 (47.6%) attempts. Louisville was 9-25 from behind the arc (36.0%).
• Saint Francis managed to outrebound the Cardinals, who came into the night with a +9.7 rebounding margin, 35-33. It was the first time this season that Louisville has been outrebounded.
• The Cardinals size was a factor as they blocked seven shots and outscored Saint Francis 40-20 in the paint.
• Saint Francis was hurt by a season-high 19 turnovers.
• Saint Francis was only outscored 38-37 in the second half.

Notes

• Braxton's 25 points were the most by a Saint Francis player since Isaiah Blackmon (Charlotte, N.C./West Charlotte) scored 25 vs. Wagner on January 26, 2017.
• The 12-point margin of defeat is the smallest vs. a ranked opponent since a 91-85 loss to No. 13 Pitt on Dec. 1, 1990.
• Saint Francis has outrebounded its opponents in each of the last three games.
• Junior Andre Wolford (Willowick, Ohio/Saint Ignatius) made three three-pointers for the second consecutive game en route to 11 points. He is 6-9 from behind the arc in those games.
• King joined Braxton and Wolford in double figures with 11 points. 
• Sophomore Randall Gaskins added eight points.
• Sophomore Deivydas Kuzavas played a career-high 35 minutes, grabbing eight rebounds. He has 19 rebounds over his last two games.
• The Red Flash handled itself with poise playing in front of its largest crowd of the year. The announced attendance was 17,524.

Up Next

Saint Francis hosts American on Wednesday night, Nov. 29, at 7 p.m.

Head Coach Rob Krimmel - Postgame Quotes
 
(On injured player Isaiah Blackmon (Charlotte, N.C./West Charlotte))
"The team's mantra is 'next man up.' He's a talented young man. Our guys rallied. We had a guy go down like that, we've got to rally in support of him. But you've got to rally and support the team also. It's that next man up mentality. Not one person is going to replace him, but I thought a couple of guys gave us a good lift. I thought Malik (Harmon) is starting to play like the old Malik. He's coming off of an injury himself, but Andre (Wolford) and Scott (Meredith) are two kids who can really shoot the ball – I think between the two of them they might have had 12 or 14 points. Those three guys in particular can help us make up for the loss of a really, really good player. The culture of the locker room that we have is next man up."
 
(On Louisville's length)
"I was proud of the way our guys battled. If you look at the rebounding numbers, our guys out-rebounded a team that is really athletic and long and I thought our guys competed. They're definitely at a size-advantage on us and I thought that they exploited that at times, but our guys battled. Give Louisville credit, they were able to make some key shots down the stretch there to open it up, but it was a great atmosphere. Our guys could have certainly hung their heads with 10 minutes to go down 20. That could have very easily gone 30 or 40, but I was proud of the way they battled back and made it a game under the final media timeout."
 
(On the team's 19 turnovers)
"That was one of the keys coming in here. It's been a big key for us all year. In the first four games, our turnover percentage was really good. Now, we hadn't face a team like Louisville with the length and the athleticism and their ability to pressure the basketball, but when you give them 17 points off the turnovers – a lot of those turnovers led to layups and easy opportunities. Our margin for error in a game like this is very slim and that's one of the things we challenged our guys at halftime. We had 11 at the half and we cut those down a little bit in the second half. It's a good learning experience for us. We had 19 turnovers and I think these guys see how important it is to handle the ball and take good shots, because when we get shots, we have some guys who are capable of making them."